Sunday 4 March 2018

Day One - New Delhi

'Mudras' welcoming us at Delhi airport
India Gate seen from the coach
Painted frieze on subway towards the Birla temple

After a cramped overnight flight on Jet Airways when I watched the first episodes of Friends and my neighbour saw the film 'Gone with the Wind' - not a lot of choice...we met our guide and drove through the lush green garden that is New Delhi. 

This is the British half of Delhi. Buildings designed by Lutyens, and hundreds of workers watering and weeding the immaculate greenery. Beside the road I spotted a small boy with a large bag on his back supported by his forehead. Nearly hidden behind hedges was a rubbish tip. A bit further along an elderly man squatted in front of a pile of filthy crushed bits of metal. He was sorting through the rubbish.

On the coach we were told not to drink any tap water and not to give money to beggars. Apparently they were all controlled by the Mafia and the beggars would not get the money we gave them.

That afternoon we visited the white marble Birla temple. It was so clean. A woman swept with a palm leaf. Another woman wiped the floor with a rag. 

In the subway near the temple we saw a beggar with no legs. I gave him some money and later felt embarrassed that, not understanding the money yet, I had only given him the equivalent of about 20p. The rate of exchange was then 85 rupees to £1. Before the Brexit negotiations we were told it was better ie. between 100 to 110 rupees to a pound. 

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